1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to charging connectors for an electric vehicle as those for use in charging the storage battery of such an electric vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Charging connectors for an electric vehicle as those for use in charging the storage battery of the electric vehicle include a vehicle-side connector which is connected to the storage battery mounted in a vehicle body and also fastened to the vehicle body, and a power-supply-side connector which is connected to a power supply for supplying charging electric power. The charging operation is performed in such a state that the power-supply-side connector has been fitted in the vehicle-side connector. Upon the termination of the charging operation, the power-supply-side connector is then detached from the vehicle-side connector.
As the aforesaid charging connectors are generally of such a type that the operations of connecting and disconnecting the connectors are manually performed, charging work has to be done smoothly in particular.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,209, for example, describes a coupling apparatus of the sort mentioned above and as shown in FIG. 26, a slit 102 is formed in the predetermined position of the body of an electric vehicle 101 and a charging coupler 103 is made insertable in the slit 102.
A coupler accommodating portion 104 of the charging coupler 103 is provided under the slit 102. As shown in FIG. 27, the coupler accommodating portion 104 is equipped with a secondary core 105, a secondary coil 106 which is wound on the secondary core 105 and a channel 107 which is formed in the secondary core 105 and used for receiving the charging coupler 103. The charging coupler 103 is equipped with a primary core 108 and a primary coil 109 which is wound on the primary core 108 and the primary coil 109 is excited by a charging power supply. When the primary coil 109 is excited in such a state that the charging coupler 103 has been inserted in the coupler accommodating portion 104, electromotive force is generated in the secondary coil 106, whereby the power battery (not shown) of such an electric vehicle is charged.
With the arrangement above, the charging coupler 103 is inserted via the slit 102 in the channel 107 from above and taken out of the coupler accommodating portion 104 again by pulling it upward with a handle 103A on the termination of the charging operation.
The joint surfaces of the cores are exposed to the air when they are not used, though they are brought into engagement with each other at the time of charging. Consequently, extraneous substances may stick to the joint surfaces. In the aforementioned charging apparatus, the extraneous substances sticking to the joint surfaces 105A, 105A (see FIG. 27) of the secondary core 105 cannot easily be found nor cleaned because the secondary core 105 is situated in the depth of the coupler accommodating portion 104.
As shown in FIG. 27, moreover, the secondary core 105 has two joint surfaces 105A which are directed opposite to each other and the trouble is that the work of cleaning them has to be done twice by changing the direction of the cleaning means.